Practice

The Alternative Investment Management Association, a hedge fund group headquartered in the U.K., is pushing for more transparency, in an effort to stave off regulation.

With vastly lowered expectations for retirement, investors appear more amenable to annuities and other income-generating investments whose scaled-down returns they might not have considered before, NAVA found in a survey of 1,500 financial advisers.

Morningstar has developed a series of 18 asset allocation indexes for investors and advisers to use as benchmarks for target-date and target-risk funds.

MIAMI - In their frantic efforts to cut costs, many financial services companies have been jettisoning everything that isn't absolutely necessary to stay afloat. This may work in the short term, but senior leadership is starting to realize the continued need for expertise in regulation and compliance and customer service to provide seamless risk management, transparency and communication.

Benefits consulting firms Mercer and Callan Associates are creating a mega investment consulting shop, as the two have announced plans to merge their operations.

MIAMI - With the average equity mutual fund portfolio down more than 38% in 2008, money market mutual funds are quickly becoming one of the only safe havens for risk-averse investors. Money market fund assets recently topped $4 trillion for the first time, making money funds the single largest mutual fund group, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Morningstar has developed a series of 18 asset allocation indexes for investors and advisers to use as benchmarks for target-date and target-risk funds.

Money market fund assets have topped $4 trillion for the first time, greatly buoyed by the Treasury Department’s $1 NAV guarantees and financing to purchase asset-backed commercial paper from money funds, which has eased the credit markets.

BOSTON - For decades, annuities were shunned by money managers for their high cost and lack of liquidity.

BOSTON - Like gambling addicts who just need one more big win before they cash out, millions of Baby Boomers on the verge of retirement took extremely risky bets with their life savings, hoping to score that big jackpot that would make up for all their past mistakes.